Not to compare myself with Michael Jordan, whose final season was chronicled in a memorable mini-series called “The Last Dance,” but tonight will be - most likely - my last dance as a full time pulpit rabbi after 42 years, 37 of them here in Stamford.
It’s hardly my last dance as a rabbi, but it will be an emotional experience for those attending, including me. You can see tonight’s program and a number of congratulatory letters by clicking here. We’ll be adding more correspondences to this collection as they come in - you can send them to me directly at joshuah@tbe.org. Those who can’t be here can watch online at https://www.tbe.org/tbe-live/
Last Friday night I gave my final “normal” sermon (tonight’s will be anything but). While not a dance, it included a song and the focus was on the priestly blessing as a fulcrum for joy. Complete audio and excerpts from the text are below. And stay tuned for more on tonight’s service in my follow-up post. Shabbat Shalom!
I went looking for pure joy the other day…. Where do you find pure joy?
I looked up pure joy – and clicked on images. The first several photos were of children, flowers and puppies – rolling in the dirt, catching a Frisbee… there was a horse being fed an apple
Children – on swings; or in a sunny field with arms extended in the air. Dogs running through water.
Dogs AND children – eating an ice cream together.
The ingredients of pure joy would seem to be animals, children, sunny days in the fields and, ice cream.
What’s not there? Human adults. Commuting. Work.
When in our lives have we experienced pure joy?
This week’s portion of Naso defines, in a Jewish sense, what pure joy is all about.
We find there the priestly blessing – blessings are ways for us to express joy and wonder – two of the three begin with a nearly identical phrase – “(Yisa / Yaer) Adonai Panav Aylecha…”
May God lift God’s face or show God’s face unto you. To show one’s face means to lift up that face – think of how one’s mood changes as our eyes are lifted up from looking down despondently, and we can see the whole face glow.
What does it mean for God to give Godself a facelift? Deuteronomy 10:17 states just the opposite from the verse in the priestly blessing - “God will not lift up God’s face.” אֲשֶׁר לֹא-יִשָּׂא פָנִים, The midrash reconciles these verses – one applies when Israel does God’s will and the other when Israel does not.
So when we do even the slightest good deed, God gets in our face – and what does it means to have a God-face? To have godliness in our face? For our face to look like the face of God? It’s those pictures – it’s the kid with ice cream, the puppy – it means that we experience Pure Joy.
That pure joy, according to Sfat Emet – is what the third priestly blessing means – that Godliness glows in our face. Yisa Adonia Panav aylecha - Vayasem lecha shalom. And from that we experience wholeness – shlaymut. We feel an inner peace. Not outward ecstasy. Something quieter.
A single mitzvah done in joy contains God – all of God – within it, and that provides us with the wholeness that we need.
Even a tiny deed, even something trivial like putting a coin in a tzedakkah box, or lighting candles on a Friday night – or praying – or saying a kind word to another person – or these are all channels for that divine light – these are invitations for God to be in our face – for that pure joy to be felt and to glow from us.
A sufi poem:
How
Did the rose
Ever open its heart
And give to this world
All its
Beauty?
It felt the encouragement of light
Against its
Being,
Otherwise,
We all remain
Too Frightened
Lawrence Kushner writes about – his four-year old daughter (who is now a rabbi in San Francisco), who sees snow for the first time and runs outside to let it land on her face.
And I stood at the window watching the snow fall on my little girl. There are places children go that grown-ups can only observe from afar.
I’ve always loved that line. And I’ve seen it. And you don’t need snow to experience it. I’ve seen it whenever I bring a child over for their first peek up close at our ark.
Jonathan Haidt has studied the surges of elevation we feel when we see somebody performing a selfless action. Haidt describes the time a guy spontaneously leapt out of a car to help an old lady shovel snow from her driveway.
One of his friends, who witnessed this small act, later wrote: “I felt like jumping out of the car and hugging this guy. I felt like singing and running, or skipping and laughing. Just being active. I felt like saying nice things about people. Writing a beautiful poem or love song. Playing in the snow like a child. Telling everybody about his deed.”
Perhaps there are places where children go that we adults can get to as well.
That example is what brought to mind for me those last few words of the priestly blessing: Vayasem Lecha Shalom.
Life is too precious for us to leave all the pure joy to little kids in the snow, and to puppies with ice cream.
When the cantor was kind enough to ask me if I wanted to sing in last week’s concert, I opted not to – but told her that if I did, I’d love to sing a Broadway song that is not part of the Jewish songbook, but in my mind comes right out of the book of Numbers. And the mind of Charles Schultz. It’s always been a favorite of mine and my kids – this show the first one my mother took them to on Broadway, and I had seen “You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown” as a child in Boston. My brother would play Snoopy’s song “Suppertime” on an endless loop on his record player. That song expresses the joy of puppy mealtime.
But to conclude my final Friday night sermon – another song, that truly fits the spirit of the priestly blessing. Because it’s both a song - and a wish; my wish for you.
Happiness is finding a pencil
Pizza with (Mushrooms)
Telling the time
Happiness is learning to whistle
Tying your shoe for the very first time
Happiness is playing the drum in your own school band
And happiness is walking hand in hand
Happiness is two kinds of ice cream
Knowing a secret
Climbing a tree
Happiness is five different crayons
Catching a firefly
Setting it free
Happiness is being alone every now and then.
And happiness is coming home again
Happiness is morning and evening
Daytime and nighttime too
For happiness is anyone and anything at all
That's loved by you
Happiness is having a sister
Sharing a sandwich
Getting along
Happiness is singing together when day is through
And happiness is those who sing with you
Happiness is morning and evening
Daytime and nighttime too
For happiness is anyone and anything at all
That's loved by you.
Shabbat Shalom